Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas - Check out the video

5 to 4

I made my request to upgrade from a Cat 5 road racer to 4. Even though I suck it was still time. 5's are meant to allow you to get the lay of the land - to learn what is involved in racing and how to race safely with others...not as a development category.

I don't feel ready, but the TT results from Sunday have helped show me that I am. I basically came out with a 3.3 w/kg functional threshold power (ftp) which puts me about mid level Cat 4 on Coggan's chart. I will post about the TT later. As it is let's hope I get the upgrade. Don't know if I officially have all of the starts required, but I just threw all of the events I have done on there. Big fields. Competitive. Meh...we'll see.

A little behind in my work

I have been trying to focus a little more on work, family, and of course...riding lately. As a result I have thoughts of tons of nice things to blog about but haven't gotten around to actually blogging.

First things first....Montrose wrap-up:

It was cold. this is what it looked like when we left that morning.

I did tear up my tights in on fo the wrecks I had. Didn't notice until later. I finally washed the cross bike yesterday. The season is now over for me. Poo.

In more exciting news we had a holiday BFNIC party that Colochange put on. He was nice enough to invite a bunch of us less desirables over to his house and feed up beer. I took him up on the offer...

Above L to R: Cycling Jester (thanks for the ride DD), Recursive trying to remember why he came, Cyclpsycho/Alien, Colorchange our host, Alien2, CyLowe97.

Recursive - that's how he rolls...

iab - the premise of the party was that you brough your bike and got your picture taken with it. Nice idea. Colochange got to work another one of his hobbies in. Check out the vintage steel that iab is spoting. I can pretty much assure that it is older than anyone actually reading this.

Alien - What Woulf Jens Do. I love this shirt. For those that don't get it google "Jens Voight". Throw a lot of German/Australian accented f bombs around and you might get close.

Above L to R: Voldemort, Recursive, Alien2, Scummer, SmokinMiles, iab and Alien

Good party and lots of fun. I remember doing a shot or two at one point. I also remember getting up on his TT bike in full party mode and riding it a bit....I think. His puny bike bent under my awesomeness (read "weight") and the tire rubbed a bit on the table....

The next morning we went to see The Laurie Berkner Band at the Rosemont Theatre....Complete with hang-over we got to be crammed into a huge theatre with a slew of 2-8 yr olds....jumping and singing. Awesome.

Funky-Dunk

Sorry about the lack of updates. I'm in a funk. Mix of end of season blues, winter.


Ah, f' it.


My form of therapy for this is to go ride my ass off. I am usually so flooded with endorphins afterwards that you could shoot me in the foot and I'd be like, "Oooo...look at that hole. It goes clear through. Nice shot!" Thank you, mother nature, for making that an impossibility.


Any-whey


Cyclocross is over. Montrose. It was cold. I was wearing 2 layers of tights....seriously. My heavy winter ones to boot. Single digits out there. Hands were so numb I was certain I was going to end up with frostbite damage. They were so cold/numb I couldn't even feel that they were there anymore. No pain or anything.


I got a great start - 3rd in by the end of the starting straight. From there I just started to make mistakes. I let a few guys go by as we got to the hill the first time because I was thinking, "these guys are still going for points, I don't want to take them out from some stupid move, I'm going to pop if I push too hard right now."


From there began the comedy of errors. The conditions changed drastically - getting more icy as the race went on. I had too much pressure in my tires after changing it 3 times...and I was running like 32-34 in clinchers.


This race sealed for me the opinion that you do need tubulars for cross racing. At least when conditions get like what we saw on Sunday.


So....some missed remounts on ice, dropping my chain and having a hell of a time putting it back on with gloves on. For the second venue in a row I kicked my brake caliper into my wheel (under the rim and into the spokes). I had to stop and pull that out. I had to put a foot down and stop so many times it was pathetic.


At one point something happened on the second downhill into the bridge. I had to dismount and run down the rest of the hill, through the tunnel and up the hill over the next barrier. It sucked.


I was a defeated man. I didn't even want to be riding anymore at that point. For the first time I thought about quitting - not because I was physically beat - but because I had lost all my motivation and just didn't want to keep getting beat so bad.


Then Bob passed me. It was similar to the feeling I get those times when Little P doesn't want to give me a hug. No love.


At that point my race was done. I had no desire to do anything other than get the race over with. Someone else passed me somewhere. Then on the home stretch I heard someone moving up on me.


There was a section of pavement near the start/finish that I had wipped out on during a practice lap. I then watched tons of guys go down in the same spot in every race after that. it had a poor transition between the pavement and the grass and the pavement was slick and 100% ice.


I had taken it slow everytime through there just to stay upright and it had cost me about 1 position every lap. This time again I was coasting over that section as this guy was nailing it. I wasn't going to give this one up. He had about half a wheel on me and the momentum when I decided to sprint. I clicked up about 3 or 4 gears and just layed into it.


I realized I hadn't even dug deep at all that entire race. Sad. I had a lot in reserves and took him at the line. He gave me a "Nice finish. How many laps did we do?"


All I could muster was a, "I don't know....3 or 4."


Turns out it was 5. Who knew.

I finished 23/52. Blech. I gave it away. MJH2 got a 7th. Congrats man. Way to go into the offseason with a top 10. Way to stay vertical.


Cross is over. Winter is here. Trainer season has started at Bicycle Heaven. Between Tuesday night and Thursday night sessions there and spending time with my family I hope to remain sane.


The TT build is about 90% there in terms of parts. I tend to hold things off because I like to prolong it. I don't like the thought of having a build complete in December and not getting to ride it outside for months.


I may complete it earlier than normal though so that I can ride the trainer with it and do the indoor TT series on it this winter as practice for the next season's TT's.


Meh.


Double Meh.


Bah humbug.


Pic of Montrose from velogrrl...

I must be stupid

Hi. It's in the single digits out there today. Lots of snow. I'm just about on my way to go race my bicycle. I just spend about an hour digging for all those deep winter clothing items. Balaclava....last piece of the equation.

So...when you're sitting there watching the Bears play today just think that just a few miles away Yours truly will be riding his bike over frozen mud, and off-camber snow and ice at the Illinois Cyclocross Championships in Montrose.

It beats riding the trainer. I think.

MMmmmm...More

Today the guy in the uniform brought me more stuff. Happy Birthday to me.....

Sorry

I spent the week at my folks house last week. I just didn't get around to posting much on here. I have a great race report/pictures mostly from the Woodstock race. I had my highest placing yet and best start by far - coincidence?

I'll see what I can get out here...